Mismatched: Soul Eater Remix
by Ayuki Holmes
Summary: What if Death the Kid wasn't aware of the arranged marriage between him and a Time Guardian who happened to be the most air-headed of the lot? This would result!
1. Prologue: By Death the Kid

Disclaimers/Disowning/whatever you want to call it: I don't own Soul Eater, you know what I'd do if I ended up doing it. And sorry about that... I accidentally deleted and some misunderstandings as well! DX And a _**BIG**_, humongous thanks and encouragement squad, Zaru, for being my beta reader... man, I know when I fail, I fail big time. DX Anyways, on with the show!

* * *

_Prologue: Why did Fate do this to me? (By Death the Kid)_

If Fate had predicted this earlier, he would have pushed this one ahead. And make things a lot more complicated and excruciating than before. Oh, how the world complicate things when unexpected events (asymmetrical things) were inserted in the most unexpected places. And this was one of them.

"So, it is true, then, Dad! You kept this deliberately from me! It's no wonder why you did not insist that I just fall in love and marry someone that I want… I object to this, entirely! After what happened earlier, I utterly object on those grounds!" he yelled as a familiar voice that we all know and love tried to calm him down. And yes, he has refrained himself from using the Shinigami Chop on him. He loves his son too much.

"I did not know that… especially when you told me like that. I know you're trying your hardest, both as a Grim Reaper and trying to make Liz and Patty your good choice of weapons, but…"

"Dad! You owe me! I didn't ask for it! Who is that girl that you gave your diary to? Why her? What is she after? You have a lot of questions to answer me!"

It's not that he wanted it in the first place at all. After all, his father had no knowledge of symmetry… he's the one with the superior knowledge. And… what father did… nope, not to his standard. After all, everyone was young, once. And foolish, as most of them say. And yeah… he had to keep his end of the bargain. After all, he was an _honorable_ Grim Reaper and that _honorable_ Grim Reaper was Death himself. His son had to confront his father about it, discussing about it in the Death Room as his son held the little black book (also known as Death's Diary and evidence) in his hands.

"After all," Death had told him once, "You certainly had your fair shares of troubles when I was at your age. So, I was in a tight squeeze and had to do the right thing, or I could have lost more than that," he added as Death's son, Death the Kid, held the book high as though he was disappointed. His yellow eyes were locked on to his father's eyes as he threw the book down in front of his father, especially in anger. It was unusual, out of line, that Kid would react like this, but it was something that he, or everyone that was close to him, knew that was close to his heart. Love. Didn't his father tell him to remain cold and emotionless whilst being a Reaper? It was the only exception that Kid had been emotional at this point in time. Almost.

"You played a game of Russian Roulette… in the middle of nowhere where nothing's symmetrical… for a million kishin souls and you fell for that? And me on top of it? Me, your son, is about to be married to some unknown… _dimwit_ who knows nothing about my passion for symmetry? You must have some nerve to do that!" Kid snarled as Liz and Patty looked at him, worried. Yeah, they knew about the incident earlier. For those who don't know about the incident earlier, here's the short version of it…

* * *

At Shibusen…

"It's over now… I hope you're seriously going to study after that little episode?"

"All right, but it's boring!"

"Black Star!"

Those were the last two people who were out of class: Black Star and Tsubaki. The 'wannabe' number one star had stretched his arms out wide, since they were sitting in class all day. All the others were waiting outside, waiting for them before getting something for lunch. As a matter of fact, everyone (including Kid himself) were starving since Stein was going on about dissecting and the reasons why dissecting should continue in schools. If you asked Kid on how long the lecture went, he'd say four hours (well, it was technically three hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty nine seconds, but he prefers rounding off, though) and he wasn't interested in it at all. Meanwhile, Maka and Soul were kind of quiet. As a matter of fact, during the end of January, they were keeping their distance a part. And that meant bad news. And that made the group worry.

"Hey, Big Sis… why is Maka and Soul so quiet of a sudden? They usually talk, but…" Patty whispered to Liz, but she rolled her eyes. Liz knew what Patty was talking about and she could understand why they were so hesitant towards each other. It's not that Valentine's Day was bad, but it was the fact that keepings things to business purely was getting harder and harder when it crosses with their own personal lives. Aye, every Meister and Weapon knows that if they get themselves romantically involved, things could happen. Take an example: Maka's Dad and Mom. They had a romantic involvement and now… they were divorced for good, leaving Maka as the casualty. Another reason why they shouldn't get romantically involved.

"Oh, I see. Valentine's Day is coming up. I heard that most of them are awkward in giving their Valentines something. In Japan, I heard girls give chocolate to their loved ones, but in other countries, it's the other way around. Or so I heard," Liz began as Patty 'ahhed' in appreciation. Then, Patty had another question and leaned forward to Liz as she whispered to make sure that no-one, including Black Star, were eavesdropping on their conversation. Well, not really. As a matter of fact, it was the opposite that was done. And that landed Liz and Patty into hot water. Metaphorically.

"Okay… I get it. But they were romantically involved, weren't they?" Patty asked as Maka and Soul froze in mid-air. Uh oh. They heard it. Patty innocently continued, and that was before Liz had decided to gag her with her hand.

"Well, they were acting like a couple before, so it shouldn't…" Patty began, but her words turned to inaudible words as Liz apologized to them on her behalf, her sheepish face plastered on as she talked to the two shocked people in question.

"Heh, heh… that didn't come out right. We're kinda worried that you're not as talkative as before. You're taking time out or something?" Liz asked as Maka laughed, relieved. Then, she shook her head.

"Well, not really time out. It's just that we were getting too close and we needed our alone time so that we can focus on the task at hand. It's better that way," Maka explained as Soul nodded in agreement. He chuckled as he put one of his hands through his white hair as he quickly backed Maka up with her statement.

"Yeah, I was going to lose my cool, but yeah… when Maka suggested it, I accepted. So, yeah. Don't worry about us, though. We'll talk, but not on a personal level, though, which makes things cool from here on out," Soul grinned at Maka. Maka grinned back. At least they had talked about it and that made the group a little relieved. As the group were walking along, there was a girl, wrapped in a ragged hood of beige, was running towards the group. And as they were talking, this girl had accidentally bumped into Kid and he slipped to the floor, hitting his left side of the head. And no, Kid wasn't pleased. The girl had noted it and apologized as she tried to help him get up. He couldn't see, as he confessed later on, what the girl had looked like or what he was.

All he knew, upon seeing her the first time, that she had a soft, reserved voice and the fact that she was _exactly_ the same height as him had him bothered. He preferred girls who were slightly shorter than him and she was... level with him. And another thing was her shape. Within reason, she wasn't exactly symmetrically proportioned correctly, compared to Liz and Patty... they were, he must admit in his mind, were more proportioned correctly than this girl was. Especially her stomach and her thighs. Nope, not symmetrical.

"I'm sorry, sir… I didn't mean to bump into you like that, I…" the girl began as Kid snorted. It wasn't about the slip that she gave him, but the fact that she didn't bump his head in the center of his head was annoying.

"You are so ignorant when it comes to symmetry. Next time…" he felt like hitting the girl, but he refrained, "Hit my head in the center! The Center! Thanks to you, my left side of my brain hurts!" he snapped as she bowed a couple of times (it was seven times, which made Kid more annoyed than ever), apologizing to him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said before she sniffled into tears. At this, Kid rolled his eyes at her. He managed to dust himself off, straightened his jacket as he touched her arm, a gentle touch that would make them a lot better. He perfected that in four days. Likes doing that.

"Oh, look… if it's an accident, it's an accident. You shouldn't run on the school grounds like that, there's bound to be more accidents when you do that. I'm sure that whatever you're trying to find, you'll find it," Kid said, a tad gentle from his usual scolding voice. She nodded as she sniffled. She wiped her tears with the beige hood as she thanked him, a little grateful for his advice.

"I'll remember that, sir. Thank you, sir," she said as she bowed three more times before she left. And that only annoyed Kid more. As they were about to go on, Kid had spotted a black book that the girl left behind. The others were around it, interested on what was going on. It was a leather book, nothing special about it.

"Oh… the girl dropped it. Wonder what the book's about?" Maka hummed thoughtfully as Black Star laughed out loud. He put his hands on his hips as he made the obvious (but incorrect) conclusion. He was grinning ear to ear as he said it.

"I bet it's all about me! The girl is writing a secret diary about me and I'm the star, saying how all powerful and mighty I am! I have fans to prove that I am even more powerful than the Gods! Even better, I have a number one fan here!" he beamed as Kid opened up the book, a little shocked. He took a little time to scan it before he announced it to the group.

"It's not about you, Black Star… it's about me… it's in my father's handwriting when he was younger and he… what? _He did what_?" Kid wanted to yell at the top of his voice as the others were in shock horror. Kid… betrothed… impossible. The writing had said it, in black and white. There, written in his father's handwriting:

_"... However, after we lost fifteen rounds of Russian Roulette thanks to Spirit's unhelpful assistance, I found another way to stop them from taking those human souls away and managed to get the million kishin souls back. But, there was a woman who played alongside with the enemy, and won my son's hand in one go. She told me that she would wait until Kid is old enough to marry, which would be sixteen, I think. Or was that eighteen? I can__'t remember."_

Liz had twitched eight times (for Kid's sake) and slowly turned to him, a little apprehensive on what Kid might do to her if she made a wrong move. It was worse than the time when Kid tried to redecorate his house in parallel lines, but there were arguments whether it should go vertical or horizontal. It went for sixteen days before Kid cancelled it, believing that putting extra stripes would have ruined the symmetry between the two adjoining rooms. After all, it was Kid's thing.

"Oh, yeah… you said that you didn't believe in love and love was a wasteful thing to do, right? And also ruins the symmetry, right?" Liz asked slowly as Kid's anger slowly began to rise. It was obvious that something didn't please him and yes… he pieced two and two together. He knew that the girl had obviously stolen his father's diary, but why? Why did she steal it? To gain father's deepest darkest secrets? Him? Liz? Patty? Whom? Kid shook his head, he was over-reacting to everything as usual, as Liz would have pointed out earlier.

"True. Even though hearts are symmetrical, I grant that, but love in general is asymmetrical. Asymmetrical in the fact that one cannot be equal in love. One has to dominate over the other and that displeases me on a great level. Balance is what the world needs, not this!" Kid gritted through his teeth as the others slowly backed away from him. Then, Kid motioned for Patty and Liz to come along with him to confront his father about it. Something told him that his father wouldn't allow his diary to be stolen just like that... unless if his father gave her the diary for such odd purposes... whatever it might be. But he had to know.

"Liz, Patty… we will have to skip lunch today, I'm afraid… all of a sudden, I have lost my appetite," Kid began as Liz and Patty followed him, keeping their distance between them and him. And that's when they parted their good byes.

"Later, guys… see you in class," Liz called out as the others waved goodbye. They were seriously worried for Kid, even though he's the son of Death and was capable of looking after himself, but they weren't aware to things like this and things that he wasn't comfortable with. And that made them worry.

* * *

And that's the short story of it. Now, back to the conversation at hand.

"Look, I managed to get the million kishin souls (well, ninety-nine and managed to get a witch's soul during the Russian Roulette game) and made Spirit the Deathscythe what he is today. Other than the personality trait, but I had to stop those madmen before they took ten million human souls and that was an uneven deal, but I managed to cope with it," Death pointed out as Kid crossed his arms and snorted. He wasn't going to accept any excuses, especially when it came from his father. All of his life, ever since Kid was born, Death had skillfully avoided Kid's questions until now. And somehow, Death was failing to avoid Kid's questions. Or a harsh interrogation, as Liz pointed out to others. And Kid was on fire.

"And do you even know who this woman is... the person that I'm supposed to marry before my sixteenth birthday... or you don't have an idea who it was, wasn't it?" Kid demanded flatly as he crossed his arms. As usual, Death chuckled nervously as he tried to avoid the inevitable. Unfortunately, for him... that's too late now. He tried to charm the boy, as he did before on some occasions, but this time, it wasn't working.

"Uh... it's a long time, but..." Death began, a little flustered, "I have a very small idea who the woman was or what she's all about, but my memory is fading that fast from those years... so, to make it short... er... no?" Death squeaked out loud as Kid rolled his eyes at him and took a deep breath, knowing what he 'must' do next. Well, 'must' is a bit overboard, but... he did it, anyway.

"_**KID-CHOP!**_" he yelled as he hit Death's head, straight in the center. And Death knew that it was coming to him. Ouch. Liz and Patty, in the meanwhile, had suppressed their giggles as Kid glared at him. Really, some of them… they need to stop doing reckless things without making things difficult for them.

* * *

Meanwhile…

Somewhere in the deep, dark alleys of Death City…

A girl in the ragged beige hood was standing on top of the rooftops, looking down at the city. Yes, she was the one who bumped into Kid a lot earlier. She managed to get out, but she had to fix up the mess that she had made: after all, she was a Guardian of Time and she had a lot to do. And besides, her mentor wouldn't be pleased if it was left unfixed. After all, she was waiting at the caves and had a mission, a tale, to complete. And tales couldn't wait forever. Her eyes had surveyed the area as she hummed to herself. She could feel the cold wind on her pale skin as she shivered. It was certainly cold in the world known as Death City, and she figured that if she had stayed longer, she would have to encounter more of these so-called kishin souls and quite frankly, she wasn't in the mood to fight them.

"So cold," the figure muttered through her own teeth before she looked left and right as she jumped down to the ground, gracefully, and glided along without problems, her beige hood fluttering in the wind as she ran. She ran as though she was a blur. Then, she frowned as she stopped halfway. She saw a white circle, glowing against the darkness. Then, the girl took off her beige hood: it's not that she wasn't pretty at all, but it's within reason. She was the one with the brown hair tied back to a ponytail flowing in the breeze, the pale skin and the sapphire blue eyes that gleamed in the moonlight of Death City. The worn out travelling boots were loose and was caked with dirt and grime to the point where it was in need of a desperate clean.

"It must be that. For his sake, I have to undo this because I love him so much and I didn't mean for that to happen. For Time's sake, it must be fixed up," she muttered as she looked at her palm, which was imbedded in her left hand. It was a large, white opal that was embedded in her palm, with tattoos on it. It began to glow as though it was acceptable. Yes, that white opal is the key to open that white circle known as a portal. Travels anywhere in time and space, whenever and wherever it might be. But, as one is about to discover, it is more than just a key. Yes, it is also a weapon as well, something that one would be regarded as 'odd'. With a single breath, she jumped into the circle, making her disappear for good.

Now, the stage is set: this is where it begins.


	2. Trip 1: By the Narrator

Disclaimers/Yet again, another author's note, as always: Do not own Soul Eater, and never will... Sorry about the long wait, guys! I am so going to make it up with a double! Yes, you heard right! And a BIG thanks, as always, to Zaru, the guy who's cheering me on, as always! ^.^ Now, on with the show!

* * *

_Trip 1: Let us go back to the Beginning (By the Narrator)_

In the beginning, there was time. No, before time... there was nothing.

Just like God, there was nothing in the world. Nothing but total darkness. Until... time was invented. It wasn't anything special about it, but there was an invisible force, a God-like spirit, invented time. It started with a speck of dust, a speck of sand and a drop of water. The invisible force placed it all three of them in a large hourglass made of various woods and mud that stuck the glass together. There, this invisible force watched it slowly go down in minute specks, one by one as it fell to the ground. These specks of dust, as many rumored, eventually turned into people and thus Creation was complete. The invisible force responsible for inventing time: Father Time.

No one knew what Father Time looked like. Some of them claimed that they were visited by the great Father Time in their sleep, but the truth is that no-one knew. However, that's not the end of it, yet.

As the first set of humans began to live, Father Time saw that they needed more than just their existence. So, Father Time created Dreams. Life. A reason to live. As more and more people began to dream their own Dreams, good or ill, Father Time knew that if they kept on Dreaming, it would made people eventually go crazy and eventually descend into chaos. And Father Time didn't want that to happen and knew that they had to wake up, soon enough. So, he created Death. Reality. The lives they were really supposed to live in. The grim world where people would wake up and see who they really were. The truth.

At first, people didn't know what reality meant until they experienced it for themselves. Some of them accepted the fact that their dreams, no matter how good it was, had to wake up to grim world known as reality. Others refused Reality. They wanted to dream longer before the grim world of Reality would come for them. However, in prolonging their own dreams, they transformed into demons. Time Bugs. Nightmares. Immortality. Darkness. Soon, the whole world in that hourglass descended into chaos. Complete chaos.

In response to such chaos that occurred in the hourglass, Father Time had abolished the hourglass in anger. Before he threw the hourglass down in anger, he had saved a few specks of that first hourglass and molded it into something special. An opal. Then, Father Time divided this one, great opal into many colors, colors of the rainbow and placed it in the second time hourglass that he created, along with a few specks of dust, sand and drops of water. Thus, the second Creation was born. As soon as Father Time added those small things like Dreams and Reality, it had repeated into the same chaos as before... until the opals had gleamed brightly, ordering for the chaos to cease.

Satisfied, Father Time managed to relax for many years to come, until the brightness of the opals had dulled. It seemed that people were greedy for those opals and had used them to their own means. To fix that up, Father Time had taken the opals out of the hourglass and smashed all of them into tiny particles and replaced a small bit of the crushed opal back into the second hourglass. Then, he attached a note on the hourglass, enough for the world inside the hourglass to see, for those who wanted to live their dreams forever.

"_The only person who will sleep forevermore will be the one who has surpassed the most basic battle that no one has completed: Time itself." _

And thus, Father Time disappeared, leaving for the second hourglass to struggle for itself. However, in Father Time's absence, the existence of Time Guardians. Their initial role was to find Father Time and beg for him to protect them and watch over them once more. As Time Guardians look for Father Time, Time Bugs had re-appeared again and had almost descended into chaos. Somehow, they had found a way from leaping into one world, one hourglass, into the next world, the last one that Father Time created before he disappeared.

Thus, the two hourglasses struggled against each other and eventually became into the First Dream Wars, where Guardians fought against the Time Bugs from the first hourglass from appearing into the second hourglass of their own world. It was a bloody war, many people woke up and some of them were trapped in their own nightmares, nightmares of torture, insanity, scars of imperfection that lasted them for a long time. However, the First Dream Wars ended, thanks to an unknown Time Guardian who managed to defeat the most vicious God-like demon ever coming from the First Hourglass: Logic.

Logic was a woman of spider-like proportions and a voice honeyed with temptation, the Time Guardian killed Logic, the woman responsible for making the first hourglass descend into chaos by creating Doubt, Pessimism and Skepticism. She was the one who had transformed people into demons, into Time Bugs, to prolong her own dreams and her own life. She was the one responsible for bringing the first hourglass into chaos. And, for some reason, she, along with a few of her own minions, managed to survive the abyss and found a way to sneak into the second hourglass without Father Time knowing. She knew that a few Time Bugs had been shifted into the second hourglass as well, making it easy for her to sneak into the second one, unnoticed.

To celebrate his heroic deeds, he was the first Time Guardian to sleep forever in his own dreams, the legends firmly imprinted in word for everyone to know and worship about. Thus peace and prosperity in both hourglasses reigned throughout the whole land until someone had heard rumors that Logic, in spite of her physical absence, had been in people's minds, waiting for the day to return to lead the world into chaos yet again. So, rumors were spread that the Second Dream Wars was about to descend upon them soon enough and thus Time Guardians were appointed to protect the innocent and to help them prevent the Second Dream Wars.

This is a tale of a Time Guardian who would bring the two hourglasses into the Second Dream Wars, instead of preventing it. A tale that many people thought that this Time Guardian couldn't prevent or end the Second Dream Wars, but Fate defies this. This is a story where anything goes. And Time, no matter how it ticks, it goes either way.

This is her story.

* * *

"Juniper!"

The girl who had bumped into Kid earlier had landed gracefully onto the ground, the dust flying as she heard a familiar voice ringing her name. It was her mentor and 'partner', Harlie. Known as the most famous and dangerous assassin ever in the Dream, those who dared cross her paths would meet their own demise. In a few seconds. She was the one of many mentors who participated in the First Dream Wars and accidentally gained immortality whilst in a duel. However, her sanity had been compromised. So, she had seen many things after the First Dream War, the peace and tranquility that brought the Dream together. For now, Harlie is mentoring Juniper and has a very hard time teaching her the ways of the Time Guardian.

"Hmph. You're late as usual. A tardy Guardian shows that you're the worst type of Guardian. No wonder everyone isn't going to take you seriously, at the rate you're going," Harlie snorted as Juniper waited for the dust to settle down and slowly see the familiar five foot six figure leaning in a relaxed position. Then, the tanned skin appeared as soon as the dust cleared a lot more, revealing the girl who was waiting for Juniper to return from Death City.

"Oh! Hey there, Harlie!" Juniper could see the short, grey-haired woman in the tomboyish clothes (which consisted of a white tank top, ragged denim shorts, traveler's boots and a ragged cape), leaning against the rock of the cold, icy caves, her arms crossed over her chest as she snorted at her. The black opal was fastened on her cape, holding it together. The grey eyes was locked on with Juniper's blue eyes as she sighed.

"If I had everything my way, I think I would have retired a long time ago from all of this nonsense and let the young ones suffer, but thanks to the damn rumors about the Second Dream Wars, I can't stand by and do nothing about it, which makes it frustrating," Harlie grumbled as Juniper walked towards her, she had this curious look on her face, as though she wanted to know why Harlie was acting like that. It wasn't like Harlie to act like that unless something, something of a serious, odd nature, had made her feel irritated in some odd way, shape or form. No-one could predict with Harlie: how she knew about it, or what she did to get her information. She was just that: the most professional assassin ever in the Dream.

"Oh, hey, Harlie... uh... I can explain..." Juniper began as Harlie snorted, the disappointment plastered on her face as she talked back to Juniper.

"No wonder my illustrious career as a Black Opal assassin is going down the drain because I have to look after idiots like you," Harlie rolled her eyes as she took a deep breath, "You dropped the little black book, didn't you?" she snapped as Juniper looked at her, blank.

"Uh... what black book?" Juniper began as Harlie stormed over to her and grabbed her clothes as she shook her pupil like a kitten. Well, almost. Harlie was seething with anger as she tried to make her point across, knowing that the consequences would be severe if it wasn't dealt with properly.

"The black book! The book! Lord Death's diary, you idiot!" Harlie snapped as she shook Juniper about, "Unless you have it on you, I know that you have lost it, haven't you?" she demanded as Juniper quickly searched herself but... failed. She couldn't find Lord Death's diary and she was in trouble! One conclusion: she lost the diary. Juniper was embarrassed by the whole thing, but she had an idea... an idea that she would get herself into trouble. Well, more trouble than before.

* * *

"Hmph, of all the things my honorable father did... ugh, I mustn't think about it... the portrait in the dining room is off by nine millimeters again... argh... Is there no way that this portrait can be kept still?"

Kid muttered this statement under his breath as he fixed up another portrait that was slightly aligned off by nine millimeters. He continued to inspect the joint, trying to fix things that were not symmetrical to each other and whatnot... until he saw something on the table. It was a gift from Liz, apparently forgotten from rushing from one place to another. A party of some sort, she had said earlier, but she had forgotten the gift that she had brought for the particular occasion when she and Patty headed out for the night. With a blink, he looked at the white and silver gift that was beautifully and symmetrically gift wrapped present, just waiting for someone to open it. Also, there was a card placed on top of it. It wasn't addressed to anyone in particular, but the envelope was open. Curious, Kid decided to take a look inside and read the contents of the card. And guess who was the recipient of the card: him.

_To Kid, _

_I'm... _(more scrawl, which made Kid twitch) _rather nervous... _(again, a lot more mess that Kid couldn't possibly accept)_ to say it... but I'm going to get it out of my system before I get awkward around you again. I was wondering if you would like me to cook dinner for the two of us... Patty will be at Maka's place for the whole evening. Please accept it! _

_Liz._

He was rather surprised to see that Liz wrote that, he imagined the nerves that she had when she was writing the card. He noted that and saw the last bit of scribble down the bottom:

_Please accept my gift for Valentine__'s Day._

With a grin, Kid knew that Liz was partially scared to face him with this gift. He knew that she was afraid of ghosts and whatnot, but it was a first for her. He looked at the gift and after inspecting it, he neatly, ever so methodically and precise, managed to get the gift wrapping off to see the chocolates underneath that gift. Somehow, his eyes lit up when he recognized what they were. He had been dropping hints for the two girls about chocolate and symmetry and somehow, Liz managed to get it. More respect for her, he reckons.

" So you did listen to me after all, Liz. I'm very impressed," Kid smirked as he opened the box of milk chocolate, the symmetrically perfect shapes that were presented to him in a beautiful fashion. He couldn't help but admire it, it was perfection itself. And somehow, he had a soft blush on his cheeks. Kid quickly took out his cell phone and photographed the chocolates that were perfectly symmetrical, making sure that he hadn't touched it before saving it. Then, he proceeded to eat one. He was one happy guy. For now.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Death City...

Juniper and Harlie were hidden somewhere near the Gallows Mansion, looking at the large gates that secured the symmetrically large building. Harlie knew about the location from a local Minstrel who was almost attacked by Time Bugs when it was heading somewhere for dinner. Harlie took a deep breath as she looked at her, a frown on her face. She knew that going in unnoticed would be impossible, since the possibility of security cameras could spot the two of them without problems. So, they were planning on how to get inside the mansion and grab the diary without anyone noticing in the first place.

"Well, we'll better think of something before..." Harlie began before she noted that two girls were nearby, causing for Harlie and Juniper to hide for the meanwhile. The two of them were heading towards the Gallows Mansion... they were the Thompson Sisters. Liz and Patty. In their causal clothes, they were giggling as they headed inside the building, arms across their necks after a long day being out. As soon as the door closes, Harlie and Juniper were out of hiding. Then, Harlie snorted, her grey eyes concentrating on Juniper as she whispered something in her ear as she observed her surroundings.

"We have to figure a way to go and grab it whilst they're out, he mustn't know about us in the process or the Dream would be compromised and you won't be able to see Crusoe again ," Harlie began as Juniper hummed to herself before she had a plan. Not the brightest one, mind you, but it worked. On so many levels. Believe me, Juniper wasn't chosen Guardian for nothing. At least she was able to make things _work_.

"How about if we distract them that takes them outside for a couple of minutes and we can take it from wherever it is," Juniper suggested as Harlie hummed to herself. As Juniper's mentor and time-traveling companion, she knew that Juniper's idea needed to be extended, somewhat. Simplistic, but it was a wise move. At least they could do it without a huge amount of fuss.

"Okay, I think I know what to do. But before we do that, we need to locate where he hid that book. I don't think he's the type to let it lie around like that, something tells me that he's a lot smarter than he looks. I made inquires about the Gallows Mansion and its residents. The owner is a Grim Reaper, just like Lord Death himself, and he might pose a huge problem if not handled correctly," Harlie began as Juniper nodded in agreement. She could comprehend the danger that it posed when getting the book, but surely this Grim Reaper person wasn't that dangerous, surely... maybe Harlie was exaggerating things as usual when she pointed out the dangers that lie with crossing paths with enemies like Time Bugs and so on. Juniper couldn't think that much, so she pushed that thought aside for now and took a deep breath, waiting for her to speak.

"Oh, okay… but how do we do that?" Juniper asked as Harlie smiled. For once, Juniper was asking _questions_... at least it was a _start_. Somewhat. Before, Juniper would never ask questions, just act head on without thinking. And 99% of the time Harlie would get her out of it. Oh, make that 99.999999999 to the power of a billion percent. In another words, Juniper's simplistic plans failed big time. Well, the point one bit... sometimes, out of sheer luck, Juniper's simple plan worked. At times. But it was rare. And now, since Juniper is somewhat settled as her pupil, Harlie discussed the details of the 'theft'.

"Let me be the scout. I'll do my best to distract him and see where I can locate it so that we can pull a major distraction on the three of them, assuming that there's three," Harlie began as Juniper nodded. "Stay tight," she added as Harlie closed her eyes. "_In time I trust, time let me be who I want to be to fulfill my purpose of what I needed be! Help me!_" The white light surrounded Harlie and made a perfect disguise, including her facial features. The only thing that remained as Harlie was her grey eyes. She was in a business suit and looked symmetrical. Juniper giggled as she approved the suit.

"It'd distract him and the two girls, since your charisma is always excellent. Now, I'll go and take it whilst you take him far away," Juniper began as Harlie stopped her.

"I'll give you a signal where the book is and grab it. It's not that hard, surely," Harlie began as Juniper shook her head. She understood her orders, loud and clear.

"No, not at all," Juniper began as Harlie nodded.

"Good. Now, let's go…" Harlie began as she straightened her suit and took a deep breath. Now, she was ready for action.

* * *

"Look, we're…"

"Wait…"

Kid had stopped Liz halfway when Harlie knocked on the door, eight times. Kid had taken a deep breath, critically judged her silently and as soon as he approved of her, in spite of Liz's protests. Something told Liz that something was wrong, but Kid would have none of it. As soon as he ushered her into the living room, Harlie had found the book. It was on the table and he hadn't moved it. Good. Now, it was the time for the ultimate distraction. Harlie had Juniper hidden in the bushes, away from the security cameras. With a confident and charming smile, Kid relaxed, his guard was instantly down as soon as he knew that Harlie wasn't a threat to the mansion at all.

"Now, how can I help you, er…?" Kid began as Harlie cleared her throat. She grabbed a badge out that says 'Symmetrical Superior Society' on it, along with her name, Supervisor Tamara.

"It's Supervisor Taramara. I'm here to inspect the place for asymmetry hazards. It's a hazardous thing, if you must know," Harlie began as Kid was gullible enough to believe it and fall for her tricks. That is what Harlie is famous for: luring people into her unsuspecting hands and manipulating them to her own ends. And as for Liz, she didn't take it. She had a bad feeling about it and knew that this woman was after something... but she didn't know what it was.

"What? You can't be…" Liz began as Kid silenced her as he nodded. Then, he explained what was going on and chuckled as he defended Harlie well.

"I know there's such a Society, Liz… and they do send out their Supervisors to inspect if there's something wrong. And I joined on my… oh, yeah… on my eighth birthday and been a proud member since. Supervisor Taramara, I assure you that there's nothing that's asymmetrical, I…" Kid began as Harlie huffed as she put her hands on her hips. She knew that she had to watch out for Liz, knowing that if Liz had found out her trick, it would be difficult for Juniper to grab the diary afterwards.

"Well, he's right… he should have the license to prove it," Harlie pointed out as Kid _did _get his card out: the matching Symmetrical Superior Society badge on it. Liz took a deep sigh and gave up on the matter, knowing that the hard-core evidence was there. Patty, in the meanwhile, was squealing with delight. She was in the middle of drawing something when she heard the commotion in the living room and decided to join them, leaving a mess in the process that Patty would have to clean up later. Hint: oil paints. Kid couldn't help himself but scowl at the mess that Patty was in and reminded himself to tell Patty to wash herself up afterwards.

"Ooo… what are we inspecting today?" Patty asked curiously with a light giggle in her voice as Harlie motioned the house.

"Everything, of course. In order for the member to be legitimate and continue to have the special discounts and so on, he or she must pass the inspection test. I am a tad harsh on everything, but I'll give you a 0.000000001 chance of error," Harlie began as Liz began to twitch.

"Are you serious? It's the same as no room for error. Besides, he's the one who's frigging straightening his things out everyday to make it symmetrical," Liz pointed out as Harlie giggled as she got her clipboard and pen out.

"Well, the three of you should be confident in passing the test then, right? You do know the procedures, then?" Harlie asked as Kid nodded. He was a little on edge for now, but he motioned for Patty and Liz to come along with him.

"Okay… well, we'll start at the very back of the garden…" Kid began nervously as the three of them lead Harlie outside. With a confident smirk, she looked at the doorframes and smirked.

"Ah… I'll just knock on it to see if they're standing parallel to each other," Harlie announced rather loudly as she knocked four times, hoping that Juniper would get the signal. Kid gulped. Oh, he had forgotten about that! He took a deep breath as he anxiously looked at her, knowing that he hadn't checked the doorframes lately.

"And they're symmetrical, right?" he asked, worriedly, as Harlie 'pretended' to critically look at the doorframe before she nodded.

"A seal of approval. Now, let's move on to the _very _back of the garden," she began as the four of them went off, now distracted in Harlie's enchanting performance. As soon as the coast was clear, Juniper managed to sneak in and saw the book. With a smile, she grabbed it and placed it back in her bag and locked it to ensure that it didn't fall out when she gets out. At least Harlie gave Juniper specific instructions on how to get the book a couple of times before Juniper got it.

"Now, to get out the same way as I entered," Juniper smirked as she exited quietly. However, as soon as she was out of the door, she tripped over the stairs, causing for her to make a large sound. This didn't bother Juniper, however. So, she made sure that the book was still with her (which remained in her bag and locked, thank goodness) and ran for her life. As soon as Juniper managed to escape and out of the Gallows Mansion altogether, Kid looked left and right and saw nothing in sight. And as for Harlie, she took a deep breath of relief as Kid shook his head. She followed Kid behind and breathed a sigh of relief. Juniper was long gone and had the black book. Thank goodness for that. She tapped Kid on the shoulder as natural as she could be.

"Oh? You have a visitor, Mr Kid?" Harlie asked politely as Kid shook his head as he took a deep breath, not knowing who had entered his house or what their purpose was. He was careless in leaving the door open and mentally scolded himself for doing a foolish thing like that. As Harlie silently passed Kid, she looked left and right and shrugged. Then, Kid sighed and decided to end it. There were too many things for one day, he thinks.

"I must be imaging things. It's best that we should continue the inspection at another time," Kid began as Harlie nodded. It was the perfect cue to exit and join Juniper. And Harlie prayed that she had the book, or else she would take her to the elders to denounce her if she failed in her task.

"Oh, that's fine, Mr Kid… I'll arrange another 'surprise' visit when you're feeling much better," Harlie said as she exited. As soon as Harlie was out of the scene, Liz called out to Kid. She was irritated at him as she crossed her arms as though he was the one at fault, since his weakness for symmetry had undone him in a couple of places big time.

"Uh… Kid… someone stole your father's diary," Liz called out as Kid's eyes were wide open. _What_? Kid headed over to where Liz was. The black book wasn't there . It was luck that Kid's intellect managed to put the pieces of the puzzle together. He frowned as soon as he realized that the Inspection was a fake and confirmed it through a telephone call. Nope, the Symmetrical Superior Society had already had his inspection a week ago.

"Stolen? But… Oh, I see. It was a distraction for the three of us so a thief comes in and steals it. The Inspection wasn't real. But… why steal my father's diary? And whom? Unless…" Kid began as he realized who it could have been. The girl in the ragged cape, she was the one who knew about the diary and stole it again, right underneath his eyes. How dare she! He was seething mad as he made two perfectly symmetrical smashes on the wall. Not like Kid, but he wasn't happy about the whole thing.

"I think I know who that person is. That lowlife… not only she's a dimwit, but a thief! She must have an accomplice as well and the two of them grabbed it. I am going to confront those two and see if I can get my father's diary back, " he growled through his teeth as he paced up and down, a little more agitated than before. Then, he was about to go outside before he felt a powerful surge that went through his arm as he was about to open the door. Kid gulped. He didn't know what the surge of power was, but whatever it was… it was powerful and dangerous. And for the first time in his life… he felt _fear_. He wasn't like this before and now... why? He shook that out of his mind and thought that he was going mad. But wait... mad? No, that wasn't it. The kishin caused the madness and he wasn't afraid of _that_. But why is he afraid now? Kid had a lot of questions to answer himself.

"What… is going on?" Kid asked to himself, a little frustrated. He didn't like this thing, fear… and whatever it is, he was going to take it out. Since fear was one of those asymmetrical things that he hated the most.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the alleyways of Death City, away from Gallows Mansion, Juniper and Harlie were walking down to the nearest time portal to fix up the arranged marriage problem. There, Harlie was proud of Juniper. It was one of these times that Harlie could savor... at least her pupil could do something right and not beyond reason. At least the elders had got one criteria right: her goals and bright ideas. Wait... scratch the bright ideas part. Well, not bright ideas, but common sense... at least she has something inside her left.

"Okay, we got the diary back… now, we go and save Death and ultimately, save my childhood friend, Crusoe and then we get married," Juniper beamed as she proudly walked down the streets of Death City as Harlie (after she had de-transformed herself into her normal form) nodded with a smile on her face. Her grey, messy hair danced in the wind as Harlie nodded in agreement. She saw a white portal ahead and motioned for Juniper to pick up the pace.

"No wonder why the elders chose you above all the others. I would have no idea and gave it up until you get your bright sparks out of nowhere. Pays to be a dreamer, eh?" Harlie began with a giggle as Juniper nodded. Juniper saw the white portal too and the two of them raced their way to get there first, like small children, laughing and giggling out loud as they headed back to the Dream.

"Yeah. And now, Crusoe… wait for my answer, would ya?" she called out loud as Harlie giggled. Now, Juniper's world has become a whole lot brighter, thanks to her.

* * *

Back in the Gallows Mansion, Kid heard the phone ringing all over the joint when he was about to try and open the door again for the second time. Liz was the nearest to the phone and nodded before she motioned for Kid to come over. At once Kid went over to Liz, curious of what she was about to say to him.

"Before we go and chase after the thieves, I think your father wants to talk to you. Why he didn't contact you the usual way is beyond me," Liz confessed as Kid nodded and took the receiver gently off Liz.

"Hello, my honorable father?" Kid asked as Death's cheerful voice came through. Well, not quite cheerful... there was a soft detection of nervousness and Kid had spotted that immediately. At this, Kid frowned. He knew that something was up and he wasn't consulted about it... yet again. Now, what is it this time?

"Oh, hi, hello, heya... yo... I hope you and the girls are going well, just like your stripes, so cute," Death began as Kid grunted, irritated. If his father was calling him to tell him that, well... he had just picked the wrong day and the wrong time. He clutched the phone tightly as though he wasn't in the mood at all.

"Please do not mention it over the phone... now, do you have something to say or I'll just hang up, no disrespect, honorable father," Kid began flatly as Death chuckled and made the announcement, rather quickly. Actually, it was a little too quick for anyone to hear it clearly and Kid's expression changed into confusion. What did he just say? And... strangely enough, why was his father calling him over the phone? A _normal_ telephone phone, for crying out loud. Was there something that Kid missed?

"I made an arrangement to meet the in-laws by next week," Death shot out, in three seconds. Kid sighed and motioned for his father to slow down.

"Excuse me? What did you just say, I didn't hear you," Kid said flatly as Death chuckled nervously and repeated the sentence once again, for the second time. That only irritated Kid even more. He knew his father would act like this when he wants to avoid something. He could hear another voice in the background, but it was too inaudible to hear who it was. He took a deep breath and tried again.

"I said... slow down! What or why are you even calling me at this hour? I am doing something urgent and you are only slowing me down," Kid growled as his father, Death, hummed thoughtfully before he chuckled. Kid couldn't help but frown. What his father was planning would upset his perfectly balanced life... not to mention that thief on the loose, but whatever his father was planning, it was more important than the thief right now.

"Actually, you're right, son. I shouldn't call you, I should... oh, that would be perfect! I'll send you a message! You do have that new cell phone that I brought you, right? It also has the same function when you summon me to talk to you! So, you'll be like the other normal teenagers... so, bye-bye!" Death had hung up the phone quickly before Kid blinked. He knew that his father had given him a cell phone for his birthday so that he could just call normal people as well as his father, since doing a couple at the same time was a difficult thing to do.

"Okay, that would be advisable, since I'm going after the thieves... Liz, Patty, come with me. I want to confront these two before they do something with my father's diary," Kid called them as Liz and Patty nodded. They knew that Kid was in his good, meister-like modes and he was ready to go after them in spite of that small, somewhat time-wasting phone call.

"Right!" the two of them chorused as the three of them headed out of the house, making sure the door was closed and everything in the lounge room and everywhere else was symmetrically normal. Four hours later (three hours spent in the house and one hour on the street) Kid had received a message. It wasn't the message that Kid hoped for and understood what his father tried to say to him. Liz and Patty stopped and waited for Kid's reaction. Before long, the two of them had to plug in their ears. They knew that something had displeased him, especially if it was something of the symmetrical sort, he was going to do that. And for extra precaution, they hid behind the walls just behind them so that they wouldn't have their ears ringing on their way home.

Kid's reaction was legendary: scream at the top of his lungs for the whole of Death City to hear. It was obvious that he wasn't happy about the meeting between him and the in-laws.

"_**What**_?"

* * *

Back at Shibusen, Death was sipping a cup of herbal tea with Sid that was taking place in the Death Room. The blue zombie was calm as he sipped his tea, sitting opposite Death as he saw Death pressing the small buttons on that new cell phone of his. He knew that his hands had given him some difficulty to press the correct buttons without compromising the whole message, so Sid had to help Death with a few letters and such.

"So, you weren't able to bring yourself to inform the news via the telephone, but you decided to give him a text message so that he couldn't Kid-chop you for the second time," Sid deduced flatly as Death gave a good thumbs up. As soon as Death pressed the 'Send' button, he placed the cell phone down and nodded happily.

"That's right: at least he couldn't give a Kid chop whilst he's here... the last one was pretty painful, I must admit and I don't want to experience that again," Death said as he rubbed his head, tenderly. Sid nodded as he placed the cup of tea down as he sighed. He knew that Kid would end up going to Shibusen and confront his father about it yet again.

"So, are you going to expect his unfortunate reaction when he receives it? You do know that he'd come in here and demanding an explanation," Sid asked as Death hummed and chuckled nervously. Then, he got an idea, putting a fist in his hand as he said it.

"I got it... I can hide somewhere in here whilst you can tell him that I'm away for the while and can't be contacted at the moment. As soon as he arrives, you can tell him, well... that I am... in a meeting with the other Death Scythes, talking about a slight staff reassignment," Death began hopefully but Sid had to put the water on his bright ideas. He knew that Death had some clumsy ideas and quite frankly, this was one of them. And Sid knew that it was going to fail.

"You'd only call the Death Scythes if there was a large threat against the world, especially anything related to the kishin. And your son would be informed about it in advance," Sid pointed out as Death tried out other ideas. And Sid pointed out the flaws in them.

"Uh... his mother wanted to have a word with me about our son?"

"_You haven't talked to her a long time, sir."_

"I was in a storytelling session with Excalibur?"

"_You can't bear Excalibur's company."_

"Uh... I was confronting one of my Death Scythes in Africa?"

"_You can't travel to Africa."_

Awkward silence reigned as Death chuckled, a little sad in his body expression.

"I'm going to experience his chops again, aren't I?"

"_Like father, like son, sir..."_

_

* * *

_

Meanwhile, eleven years back in time, Juniper and Harlie were steeped in battle as they interrupted the Russian Roulette between Death and Spirit Death Scythe and some cloaked demons of large proportions, holding more than one million human souls as hostages. Juniper was strong, following the instructions from Harlie whilst she finished all of those cloaked demons off as well as securing the human souls from any more danger. After the episode, Harlie gave them over to Death, who was grateful for their help in the matter.

"There you go. I hope you will agree on the terms, which is reasonable, right? As long as Kid is not in an arranged marriage of any sort with Juniper, the human souls belong to you," Harlie explained as Death nodded before he looked at a drunk Spirit who had just had vomited at the edge of the caves. Juniper, in the meanwhile, was making sure the human spirits are okay to hand over to Death as well as counting them to make sure that they had everything. Harlie stared at Spirit Death Scythe as though she was disappointed.

"And as for him, that unfortunate weapon of yours," Harlie added flatly, "I don't see him as being a protector of Death City. Women and alcohol... a sin and a sign of weakness. He doesn't deserve to be a Death Scythe, let alone be a weapon. He should be ashamed of himself," she said bitterly as Death looked back and nodded as he noted what Harlie was talking about. Then, he sighed before he turned to her, his former mask meeting her eye to eye as his electric blue eyes focused on her and her alone.

"Harlie, my dear... he might be a drunkard and a womanizer, but he's rather useful when he's in battle and knows when to strategize, which pays off at a huge rate. One piece of advice to you, my dear... just because you see the faults in others doesn't mean that they meet up to your expectations. I know that Juniper has some qualities that you might not have discovered yet, but one must be patient to experience them. Who knows, she might exceed beyond your expectations," Death advised her as Harlie snorted as she crossed her arms. She had heard of this piece of advice before, and yet she still refuses it. After all, she can be stubborn.

"Fine. But the only person I can commend and praise is Nira, she's almost like Juniper, but her skills are more better than mine or Juniper's. She had defeated Juniper again, on one and many occasions and the pride and joy of the Dream. It's a pity that she chose the seas instead of staying on the mainland," Harlie pointed out as Death shrugged.

"As you wish," Death added as he exited with Spirit Death Scythe and the two million souls that they took along with them. Then, a familiar voice greeted the two of them. Toasta. Another black opal user, he was the one with the pale skin, platinum blonde hair, emerald green eyes with a sword strapped on his back, the white shirt and black denim pants along with his black sneakers. The black opal shone brightly in the middle of his white shirt as that slim figure sauntered his way to them.

"Juniper, Harlie... you took your time in that tale. What happened? A mishap?" Toasta asked as Harlie smirked as she greeted him, a former pupil of Harlie's, now officially Time Guardian and folklore expert. Well, researcher. She shook her head as she stretched.

"Not exactly a mishap... just wanted to make sure things are clear before I make my move. I think you know how I work, right?" Harlie asked flatly as Toasta nodded with a chuckle. He looked around before he looked at the large Roulette wheel that was before them.

"Well, that's one tale sorted... but, I was wondering, Harlie... do you think that the kishin are descendants of Time Bugs? If they are, they could pose a threat to the Dream as well as their world," Toasta pointed out as he sighed. "For now, we shouldn't hang around here for long. The time warp that the elders use in the Forest of Despair aren't reliable," Toasta added as Harlie and Juniper nodded in agreement. They couldn't hang around for longer than they should lest they get stuck in a time hole that it was about to seal up, soon. So, they headed back to the present where more adventures await for them.

* * *

It was one week after the incident and Kid was dressing up for the occasion in his bedroom. He hated his father for putting him into awkward situations, especially when he doesn't know who his bride was or what she was like. Death and the others told Kid to give her a small chance to know her, but he wouldn't do it. He grumbled as he put his shirt on properly.

"Hmph, the nerve of my father..." Kid had muttered under his breath as soon as he picked up his skeleton-like tie brooch before attaching it in the middle of his shirt whilst being in the mirror. He had made sure that his tie was straight before he put on his black jacket, just to make it formal. The asymmetrical stripes on his right... nothing he could do. He figured that he could try shaving it off, but it would be awful, though. He chuckled. If he did shave it off, it would have put the potential in-laws off and therefore the arranged marriage would be cancelled. As soon as he was satisfied with his appearance, he headed downstairs before he summoned his father.

"Let's get it over and done with," Kid had muttered under his breath as he put his fingers in front of him, sending an electric spark across his fingers. Then, as soon as Death appeared on the screen, cheerful as always, Kid cleared his throat and waited for his fate.

"Okay, where is the place?" Kid asked as Death looked at him, puzzled.

"Eh? I don't know what you're talking about," Death began as Kid narrowed his eyes at him. Either he was ignoring him or he completely forgot about the whole thing. Liz and Patty were surprised at Death's response; he usually remembered such things, especially when it concerned his son. But today… it was different. The three of them could tell it.

"The Russian Roulette? The million kishin souls? The arranged marriage? Don't tell me that you have completely forgotten about it!" Kid snapped, a little annoyed as Death shrugged his shoulders.

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about," Death said indignantly as Kid stared at him, "It must be in your imagination, son. I have never arranged a marriage between you and anyone. I thought you'd be displeased," Death explained as Kid froze halfway. Displeased? What was the sudden change of heart? From one extreme to the other... something was wrong. And Kid hated it. So... this is how Kid's investigation about "Juniper" began. Only with the fact that Juniper didn't know who Kid is... that's all.


	3. Trip 2, part 1: By Kiri

Author's note/Disclaimers/You know the drill: Don't own, never have and never will. Otherwise, I'd be the one rolling in money. Ahem. Now, and a MAJOR thanks to Zaru, as always! Now, on with the show!

* * *

_Trip 2, part 1: Being in a romantic relationship is a bad thing, right? Or am I missing something here? (By Kiri)_

"_Blubber! Do we have to do this?"_

"Yes, we have to! Look, I'm doing it so that you can become a Death Scythe _and_ a Time Guardian... _and yet you're still afraid of this_?"

There was a guy in the middle of the desert, just a few miles off Death City. An African-American guy with dreadlocks underneath his blue beret and wearing a white hoodie jumper, baggy pants and red and white sneakers was fighting against a couple of Time Bugs as he wielded his staff, hitting them dead on and transforming them into kishin souls for Kiri to eat. The weapon, a white staff with a blue gem on top of it, had an imprint of a worried face of a girl with pale skin, glasses with navy blue hair tied back in pigtails.

"Yes, I'm still afraid," Kiri added as she whimpered to him, "Those bugs do scare me, you know," she said as she squeaked before she transformed back to her human form, a frail yet athletic girl with a pink cardigan, an open white shirt and white socks and black, leather buckle shoes, almost like a school girl. Blubber, the African American guy and her mentor, rolled his eyes as he sighed. Kiri was clinging onto him yet again and refused to fight the Time Bugs. Period. He shook his head: he had no idea how badly affected she would be when confronted with a zombie, but the bugs that crawled all over its skin and flesh had freaked her out to a good degree.

"You got to be kidding me. Yet again," Blubber muttered under his breath as he took a knife out from his pockets and lunged at the Time Bugs, a deep stab in their stomachs. It bled out a lot of dust before the Time Bugs squealed in horror before it disappeared. Dead. Now, the two of them looked at Death City before they looked at each other. It was nighttime, and the blood-lust moon was grinning at them as the cold, icy wind brushed past them. They had arrived at their destination. Now, to work.

"Do you think they'll accept us, even though we're not exactly what they're after, right?" Kiri asked, the worry carried in her voice as Blubber snorted and grinned back at her. He patted her on the head as though she was a kitty. And he knew that Kiri hated that and that amused him further.

"Well, enrolling ain't going to be so hard, since those two feminine morons in Shu-Shu aren't going to be around, annoying us... so, let's head in and get started with the training. And the Sage found accommodation for us to live in the meanwhile. In order to become an efficient Weapon Transformer and Time Guardian, you'll need to learn how to be a weapon without freaking out about bugs," Blubber said as he grabbed Kiri's hand and headed towards the building of Shibusen, running as fast as they could go.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in the dark, dark recesses of the Dream... no, not just the dark recesses, but in a realm that is removed from everyone... in a room stained of crimson blood, a woman stands there, her tall and seductive figure of black was the only prominent thing that stood out from the rest. Her grey skin, the large feathery black wings attached to her back, almost like a fallen angel, if anything else. Her black hair was tied back in a neat, Japanese knot with a chopstick imbedded in it, the black roses dangling off it as her demonic eyes, black and dull as it can be, chuckled as she sighed.

"So they knew. And for one moment I thought I was abandoned by everyone who followed me," she rasped softly as she looked around her. Then, she, with her long, unkempt fingernails that looked like daggers or something similar to a witch, touched the ceiling, a ripple of waves formed and parted the way for her to see an image of the outside world, whether it may be the Dream or not. And there, she saw Juniper and Harlie running, running towards something as though it was urgent. At this, the woman laughed as she smiled to herself.

"My, my. Did it have that much of an effect? I'm surprised," she smirked as she clicked both of her fingers. Then, there was sound.

"_**Why I didn't see this before, I have no clue... if that pipsqueak of a leader had told us earlier instead of fooling us around, we could have easily prevented it!"**_ Harlie puffed as she raced at top speed. Then, Juniper, who was running with her scythe in hand, replied back with a puff.

"_**But you were bullying her and assuming things... I didn't assume it... and I thought I felt Logic's presence and..."**_ Juniper began as Harlie snorted back.

"_**Were you? You were also assuming as well, missy... so don't talk such idiotic rubbish! Now, we're here and we need to get to them as soon as possible!"**_ Harlie retorted as a magnificent building, almost something out of a child's fairytale, of a castle slowly come into view. Then, the woman nodded before she clicked again to get a glass of blood. Human blood. It had bubbled beautifully and the inhuman screams of human could be heard as she took it before she swirled it around like a normal glass of wine before she smelt the pungent smell and drinking it, sip by sip.

"Hmmm... a little reward for my effort. I might be awake for now, but my magic is powerful, as always. Well, that's a good thing, if one wishes to amuse oneself with such things," she sighed as she saw a paper floating to the bottom of the floor, making a rippling effect in the process. The woman walked over and picked it up, her demonic black and dull eyes exchanged for her ebony human eyes. It was a letter. It said:

_Lady Logic, Goddess of Chaos and all-mighty terror of destruction..._ (Logic giggled to herself... there were many labels that she had been lavishly been praised upon and this letter was a cliché in itself, but she continued to read it, anyway) _I beseech of you to help us assassinate the Castle of Dreams and her fortresses of ghastly proportions. We, your faithful servants of Chaos, want you to lead us once more to battle and we assure you that Victory would be ours. The fortresses has a weakness to them and we will endeavor our best to take advantage of that weakness and bring you back from your prison. We will guide you to Victory! Please help us!_

It was unsigned. As soon as she read it, she thought she felt tears in her eyes. Then, she switched to her demonic eyes as she grinned. Her faithful followers didn't abandon her, but they intend to bring her back to life! There was hope indeed... hope that she could destroy afterwards. Habit of hers.

"I am touched. The heartbeat of the Dream. They're willing to murder the Dream, regardless of the consequences. But, I want to know how far they are willing to go for me? How far, I wonder?" Logic mused as she took another sip from her flute glass. Then, she pointed to another part of the room and ripples formed as a new figure had got to her attention. Death the Kid. In his black suit, he was running as though he was breathless. He was running, along with his two guns, Liz and Patty, as he looked in horror of the childish crayon scribbling on the walls of each and every building that was occurring in Death City.

"Hmmm... I wonder who this handsome man is. Oh, he must be Death the Kid, the Reaper's son... how cute..." she mused as she dreamily toyed with the idea that she might wreck havoc soon for the punishment that they gave to her a long, long time ago.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in the alleys of Death City, in the blood-lust moon of nighttime... Kid was running, Liz and Patty in their weapon form. He took deep and heavy breaths as he looked around for the shadow that was responsible for the crayon drawings on the wall.

"Are you sure that this shadow, whomever it might be, is responsible for this?" Liz asked as Kid nodded. He focused on the shadow ahead of him and frowned as he aimed his twin pistols at the shadow before he fired. However, the weapons didn't harm the shadow at all. As a matter of fact, it was the opposite. With a hysterical giggle and a cackle, it jumped high and flew as though it was a ghost itself.

"The very same. I double-checked my information and this fog is the one who's drawing on the buildings on purpose! See!" Kid huffed as the shadow giggled and used the pink crayon to draw fluffy pink monsters and formed a wall, which irritated Kid.

"And not to mention that those pink fluff-balls aren't symmetrical! They're not aligned at all! Can't an enemy do it right?" Kid growled as he saw the cute, pink monsters tried to cover him and hold him down. However, Kid shot them all without a problem and managed to get rid of them before he lost sight of them. With a frustrated growl, Kid had to stop before he looked at the childish scrawlings on the walls. They were nothing but red, asymmetrical clouds, blue, uneven grass and a pink sun. The most asymmetrical, uneven pink sun that he'd ever seen. Kid snorted as though he wasn't amused at all.

"Graffiti... the vandalism is just beginning to be annoying. I can't face my father because I promised him that I would see to the matter, even though he said it was cute and needed redecorating... my foot... that _isn't_ decorating," Kid muttered under his breath as Patty giggled. The two of them transformed back to their human forms before they observed what Kid was observing at the moment. Patty didn't do much but giggle as though she loves it.

"Ooo... so pretty!" Patty giggled as Liz sighed and looked at Kid, worried. She knew that it was the asymmetry that bothered him over anything else, but the fact that he was willing to kill this shadow for vandalizing public property was going too far. And Liz wanted to know why.

"Kid... you'll catch this shadow and hold it responsible for the drawings on these buildings. But there's one thing that's bothering me... why has it affected you, all of a sudden?" Liz asked as Kid considered Liz's question seriously before he realized that he was slowly going crazy. Kid shook his head, tired.

"You're right. I think I was going overboard with the shadow. Let's return to the mansion and see if I can catch that shadow again in the morning or the next evening, when I'm more refreshed," Kid ordered as Liz nodded.

"Right!" the two of them chorused as they followed Kid back home to Gallows Mansion. So, how did Kid get into that situation in the first place? Perhaps going back might help with a few matters at hand...

* * *

It began with his house, the ransacking. Kid hadn't been sleeping well in the last few weeks because of the fact that he had to be engaged to someone that he hadn't met before. Or what she looked like. He had cringed at the fact that the bride to be might be asymmetrical or pretty dirty, not hygienic or something like that. The OCD bit might make him feel frustrated a little more. However... he didn't want to know about it. Period. He slowly woke up in the middle of the night and decided to take a drink from the kitchen downstairs. However, he heard something and that was another reason he decided to investigate.

"Who or what is going on? I have already enough weird things in my life to investigate, especially…" Kid muttered under his breath as he switched on the lights, a little irritated. And… much to his horror, even though the room wasn't being torn a part, but the fact that the intruders had made a few objects (especially when it comes to paintings and so on) crooked. This had made him irritated… by a lot. Painstakingly, he had to go and readjust the portraits to make it pleasing to him. Satisfied, he was about to leave, he felt that there was something wrong. On all levels. He didn't know what it was, but there was something about it that made him think.

"This is not how I left that room! And I know Liz or Patty wouldn't make a huge mess out of it unnecessarily, so… hmmm…" Kid frowned as he walked into the room, casually, trying to piece the pieces of the puzzle. However, there was something that made Kid frown a lot. On the left side of the wall, there was a child's drawing, similar to Patty's drawing… a drawing of large flowers with grass underneath it, brightly colored ones with a few clouds of orange and a big, yellow sun. That… greatly disturbed him. Didn't he tell Patty not to draw on the walls, _especially_ with crayons?

Other than that issue, there was something that disturbed him further. He thought that the flowers were… _swaying_. Kid thought that it was his eyes playing tricks on him, but upon closer inspection, they were actually swaying from side to side, as though the wind was gently blowing them. This had almost Kid cringe. It didn't scare him; after all… what could be scarier? As he approached the flowers, he put his hand on the wall. However, the wall made his hand dissolve and that only surprised Kid. Then, he picked up one of the flowers on the wall and picked one out and pulled his hand out, a real sunflower of pink appeared in his hands. There was something odd about it all.

"Hmmm… it must be a demon of some sort. I must investigate it further," Kid began as he looked at the sunflower before he rolled his eyes. The petals that the sunflower had were odd. He'd pick one petal off the flower and made it even. As he put the pink sunflower in the symmetrically shaped vase, he went back to bed. He didn't think the drawing could threaten him in any way, shape or form, but somewhere, lurking in the background, a pair of red eyes chuckled. It had a target to play with now.

* * *

By next morning...

"Wow! A pretty sunflower!"

"Kid... this wasn't there last night... did you sleepwalk by any chance?"

Kid snorted as he heard the girls' comment about the pink sunflower in the vase. He was still sleepy from last night and shook his head. He was heading towards the kitchen, his black pajamas and white night robe not aligned in position and Liz grinned to herself. She won't tell Kid about that afterwards... she'd tell him when the time was right. One of many things when Kid has OCD: he occasionally slips into his messy 'moods', but he doesn't note it until Liz mentions it to him.

"I do not sleepwalk, for your information, Liz. I couldn't sleep because of what my honorable father said. First, he wrote down that he gambled me to marry someone that I don't know of, and then he tells me that he had no idea what I was talking about... I don't even know how it came to it in the first place! Why did he gamble for my hand and who am I being married to, for crying out loud," Kid retorted back as he headed over to the cupboards and grabbed the bottle of coffee beans and make a cup of coffee for himself. As he sipped, he felt a little more awake than usual. Liz smirked to herself as she bit a few pieces of her own toast (bacon and eggs) as she gulped it down with some orange juice.

"Maybe we have to ask your father about the Russian Roulette thing. Whatever that term means," Liz added as she stretched her arms. "Okay, now it's time for us to get to school..." Liz began as Patty chimed in.

"School, school!" Patty added as Kid grunted. Kid knew that they had a test today and Liz and Patty didn't study for it. Kid had nagged them for weeks on end, but Liz and Patty didn't listen to him. Instead, they went on with their busy, social lives before the day of the test. And no, they didn't study at all. Not this time. And Kid knew that, just like last time, Liz had poked him for hints to some of the questions that she couldn't answer herself. And yes, she did it without the examiner knowing. That annoyed Kid a lot.

"Oh, don't tell me that you two are going headlong into school without studying for that test, aren't you? And no, I'm not going to help you like last time, you refused my help when I told you to study and-" Kid warned her as Liz used her ace card: the OCD. She chuckled as she put her plate into the dishwasher as she readjusted her hat and her tie. Patty was running around in circles, imaging herself as a plane as Liz cleared the table from breakfast.

"By the way, Kid... you're not dressed for school... your black pajamas and your white robe aren't symmetrical, you know," Liz pointed out casually, thus getting out of it, effectively. At once, Kid hurried towards the mirror in the living room and shrieked, the most girlish shriek that anyone could produce from a male guy. Liz was right! In a hurry, he had to upstairs to change. And yes, he tripped on the stairs halfway through, face landed first on the floor, his dignity smashed in the process. This only made Liz smirk as she saw him limp his way back to his bedroom to nurse his wounds, his dignity _and_ his clothes. And that made Patty giggle harder as she pointed at him as he headed up the stairs as though it was the most comical thing that she ever seen on that particular morning.

"Mr Clumsy! Mr Clumsy!" Patty chimed as Liz quietly grinned to herself. At least he'd concentrate on something else whilst she motioned for Patty to come along. And yes, she knew that she'd have to come up with a clever way to cheat from Kid's test yet again and come out on top... somewhat.

"We'll be at school now, Kid... hurry up if you want to catch up to us," Liz called out as the muffled, defeated voice of Kid could be heard from his bedroom:

"Right... why on earth did I make my nightclothes asymmetrical? That was a cardinal sin that I wasn't expecting... I don't deserve to be a Reaper... I should go and die and then chop myself up into tiny pieces and throw them into the sea..." Kid muttered sadly as Liz shook her head. She knew his depressed moods and ignored it for now. He'd get over it, soon enough.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the cold evening of the Dream, Juniper and Harlie were in the middle of a battle. The Time Bugs that surrounded the Castle of Dreams were lunging at them, their claws stretched to slice these two Time Guardians in half. As Harlie and Juniper slice those Time Bugs in half, the cold icy wind blew past them, a premonition that something wicked was up ahead. Juniper could feel it as though she was worried about it.

"Harlie... there's some odd fog heading towards the throne... should we follow it?" Juniper asked as Harlie focused on the large, grey smoke that sucked itself inside the castle gates and with a whiff, it was gone. At once, Harlie frowned. She had a small clue on what it might be, but just to be sure,

"Affirmative. You go inside the castle gates, I'll meet you there," Harlie instructed as Juniper nodded, her mind slowly registering on what Harlie was intending to do. Her scythe raised high, she rushed ahead of Harlie before her mentor reminded her.

"And remember... the front! The front!" Harlie added loudly as Juniper nodded.

"Right!" she cheerily added as Harlie diverted from Juniper's path, hoping that her pupil got the message this time. If she couldn't remember, well... it's going to be hell to pay. She leapt up and entered the castle via the castle towers and made her way down to the throne room where the offending creature was. She prayed that she was there in time before Juniper's simple minded plans come into fruition. Whatever it might be. She managed to land on the marble floor of castle and heading towards the door, she opened it and went down the flight of stairs, the black blur as she flew down and head her way in.

"And here we go..." Harlie muttered as she changed weapons in the process. She saw some Time Bugs at the foot of the stairway, blocking her way to the throne. At once, she raised her daggers and sliced through them.

"_Time, heed me as your Guardian and aid me to Victory! It is Eleven o' clock and all is not well!_!" Harlie whispered as twin daggers, with a dark, magic aura around them appeared in her hands as she made her way to the throne. How did this situation happen? It began with a few days earlier...

* * *

"Oh, look... how about this one? It sounds good..."

Juniper and Harlie were looking at the notice board at Resilient Town, looking for missions for the two of them to complete. Resilient Town was close to the Forest of Despair, where they had just completed their last tale and collected their reward, eight thousand gold coins, minus the two thousand gold coins for jeopardizing their identity. Harlie wasn't pleased about it, so as a result, the two of them were going for another tale... another tale that didn't involve much time traveling. Especially ones that involved Death City. It was almost sunset, so... they were there until Juniper pointed out a tale that Harlie didn't expect at all.

"It says something about the Castle of Dreams or something like that... the writing is very hard to read," Juniper added as Harlie headed towards her and began to frown. The mission was about the Castle of Dreams and the rumors that there could be an assassination plot to accelerate the Second Dream Wars. After all, the Castle of Dreams was the living heart-beat of the Dream, surrounded by the six fortresses that protected the Castle of Dreams from harm. Juniper looked at Harlie and saw her expression and began to worry.

"Uh... did I do something wrong?" Juniper asked as Harlie sighed and shook her head, putting her hand on her shoulder gently to ease herself as she explained what she was thinking at the time.

"No. But the tale itself disturbs me. The Castle of Dreams? Surely the Royal Dream Weavers are capable of protecting the Castle, but why did it need a Time Guardian and a Mentor to ask for assistance? It's not normal," Harlie explained as Juniper looked at her, blank. She had no idea what Harlie was talking about at all. With a sigh, Harlie knew that Juniper needed a few lessons on the Castle of Dreams. She took the mission down and motioned for Juniper to come along. As they were finding the Minstrel responsible for the mission, Harlie explained.

"The Dream is a world that we currently live in, where you and I fell asleep, so as to speak. I suppose you knew something about the First Dream Wars, right?" Harlie asked as Juniper slowly nodded. She knew bits about it, but not in great detail. With a sigh of relief, Harlie continued.

"Straight after the battle of Despair, Logic was executed and she woke up in a prison not known to mankind. Now, some say she's sandwiched in the middle of the earth, bound by chains so that she would remain awake. Others say that she lurks in people's minds and souls, whispering in their ears to lead them and fall prey to their own temptation. And many others, who are superstitious in their own way, say that Logic transformed herself into the devil and forced innocent people to create their own nightmares. There are many interpretations on Logic, but I can't say which one would be the correct one," Harlie began as Juniper slowly comprehended and cleared her throat as her hair blew in the wind. There were many people who were going in and out of Resilient Town, especially with their carts and horses. As day slowly transformed into night, Juniper felt the cold wind on her skin and gathered her cape tighter than before.

"And... what is your opinion of it? What did you think that Logic looked like?" Juniper asked as Harlie shivered and looked at her seriously as though she meant it.

"I think she's in a chamber of blood, taking her own sweet time to fall asleep and terrorize the whole world yet again. That's what I think. I can feel her presence and I never had trusted it," Harlie added as Juniper slowly nodded.

"Oh, okay," Juniper added as Harlie cleared her throat and continued.

"After Logic's imprisonment and to ensure that she doesn't fall asleep again, the Castle of Dreams was formed. If the Dream was a person, you could say that the Castle of Dreams is the central heartbeat of the Dream. It's protected by six fortresses so that Time Bugs wouldn't step forward in that place. We're going to the Temple of Wednesday, the Guardian of that Temple is a six-hundred year old woman named Daisy. Please don't be shocked if you see the body of a six year old girl because of her reincarnations... she can sometimes act like a six year old, but she's wiser than most people I know," Harlie warned her as Juniper nodded.

"Oh, okay," Juniper added as the two of them headed towards the Minstrel who was waiting for them the entire time, waiting to give out the details of the mission altogether. The next day, Harlie and Juniper went to the Temple of Wednesday to inform them of their duties and apparently on that day... it was April Fool's Day and with a bit of cheek, Daisy gave them instructions that were completely odd and not related to the tale altogether. It had put Harlie on guard, but Juniper completely fell for it and believed it.

It was halfway through the mission when one of Daisy's loyal followers told them the truth of the matter, which made the two of them head towards the Castle of Dreams where Daisy and the other Guardians were gathering to discuss about the rumors about the assassination and the possible resurrection of Logic. So, they were heading towards the Castle of Dreams to protect them and prevent their deaths as soon as possible.

* * *

So, that's what happened thus far. The joke was that Daisy told them that the tale consisted of guarding a treasure, an 'item' that would give them the ability to bring back Logic from Reality. The two of them tried to find the treasure, which was hidden in the Mountains of Naivety, but failed to find it. As soon as they made to the destined place (and a few Time Bugs that they slaughtered on the way up there), they were told about the whole joke and it was only a matter of time before the assassination took place. As Harlie finally made her way on the balcony, trying to figure out where the fog was. However... she saw the prostrate bodies of the Guardians on the floor, seemingly unconscious. With a frown, Harlie quickly descended from above and as soon as she landed on the floor without a sound, they slowly got up, groaning. Then, they saw Harlie and looked around.

"Oh, we haven't thanked her for rescuing us... she charged against the fog head on and took it down without a problem! So powerful... I think she's the one who can prevent the Second Dream Wars," an old man from the Temple of Monday, named Sage, as he slowly got up from their unconscious state. This made Harlie frown as she questioned the old man further, helping him to get up from the floor. The others dusted themselves off, including the leader of the Guardians, the Weaver of Dreams, Façade. The mask-faced person looked at Harlie before it looked embarrassed.

"I'm afraid that she used the fourth hour to go and blast the monster beyond the castle walls... by the looks of it, I think she defeated it, or was that killed it? Defeating it would only mean that it lived or something like that," Façade added as Harlie threw her hands in the air. She knew that Juniper would do something as stupid as that. And she swore that if she ever, _ever_ complained about her wounds, Harlie was going to throttle her, period. Oh, Harlie knew that Juniper would survive, one way or another, the demon in question dead, but the wails and complaining was that of a three year old. How Crusoe had to put up with her was beyond comprehension.

"Is that so? And where is she, I wonder?" Harlie asked out loud as she felt the anger slowly rising from her body. She was going to find her, no matter what it was. And she felt like killing her, for no reason at all. And... don't ask how she was going to do it. Anyone can be assured that whatever Harlie would like to do to Juniper has a very... _disturbing_ imagination.

* * *

However, it's a completely different story from what they saw. As a matter of fact, Juniper was struggling. The fog had been destroyed, only to reveal a womanly figure of vampiric proportions. Armed with crayons. However, this womanly figure was a vampire banshee, a rare form of vampires who lure the ships to their unknown fate. Some of them say that they were sirens, but they only lure ships away from human assistance so they can drain their blood without anyone looking. Hence the rare form. The vampire banshee, a pale-grey zombie with piercing red eyes, ragged grey dress and her long, messy black hair was floating up high in the air as she hissed at Juniper as though she wasn't happy at all.

"I can't get her like this," Juniper muttered as she tried to defend herself as those crayons were being thrown at her, thrown like daggers and could slash skin when they were in contact with the crayons. As she tried to figure things out, One o Clock tried to talk to her. One o Clock, with the ability to transform into a scythe, was a female figure of unknown description inside her white opal, but her voice was audible enough for Juniper to hear.

"Juniper! Perhaps switching to Four o Clock would be advisable, there's no way we can defeat this banshee if she's throwing a tantrum like that!" One began as Four, another woman who was slightly younger than One, snorted at her. Her eyes looked at Juniper's face as she snorted. Four o Clock was famous for her blaster, but however... she's the one who has no respect for Juniper. Period.

"Her? Oh, do not waste my time if she's going to point me at that banshee and still get her accuracy wrong! Ugh! I prefer Nira over Juniper, any time of the day!" Four snorted as a masculine voice chuckled. That chuckle was Three o Clock, a masculine man in charge of spells, specialty: curses.

"I see... you're just a chicken, clucky, clucky," Three smirked as Four growled low. She hated the fact that she was being called a chicken.

"Me? A chicken? I'll show you a chicken, big brother!" she snarled as Juniper sighed and switched weapons.

"_Let's approach Four o Clock! Switch!_" Juniper yelled out as the scythe transformed into a large, black blaster that was attached to her left hand. She pointed this blaster at the banshee and missed. Worse, the banshee managed to hit Juniper... in the stomach. Blood spurted out as Juniper stumbled and stumbled back to the wall. It was rather unusual for Juniper to spill out blood because she was lucky to avoid it thus far, but for the first time ever... she had splurted out blood. And it was a lot. She was breathing heavily, not knowing whether to seek help or keep going in her current condition.

"Ouch..." Juniper muttered as Harlie managed to come to her aid in time. With her invisible and agile moves, Harlie managed to get behind the banshee and stab the banshee in the back before she could react. The banshee, injured, shrieked so loudly to the point where the whole building was shaking underneath their feet before it disappeared. This only made Harlie hiss with anger.

"Great, it escaped, thanks to you, Juniper," Harlie snorted, disappointed in her. "Other than that stomach injury that I'll help you heal up, I'll have to gather more information on where that stupid crayon banshee went to, I just pray that it doesn't go and harm innocent people in the process, knowing that we have fought them before," Harlie rolled her eyes at Juniper as Juniper looked sheepish. Not ashamed, but sheepish.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kid was walking by himself, solo. He was still thinking about last night, the incident where he had chased that mysterious shadow that made the childish drawings on those public buildings. And it still taunts him because it was there, the childish green grass swaying in the wind. He shook his head as though he had no idea. The vandalism on those walls had irritated Kid a lot more, since it indicated that he had failed last night and needed to come up with a plan so that it would come off perfectly.

"I am certain I got the right information that I needed. But, how am I going to catch this one?" Kid muttered to himself before he heard a wild chuckle from somewhere. At once, Kid spun around and saw the vampire banshee, responsible for the childish scrawlings on the public walls. It seemed that the vampire banshee recognized him from last night and with a crayon, she drew an asymmetrical person, eight large ones, aimed to take Kid down. Kid tried to run, but he was blocked by those eight stick figures, four on each side. His golden eyes desperately searched for an exit, surely there was something out of this!

"Get the hell out of my way, you disgusting things," Kid snarled as he made sure those 'things' were far away from him as possible, "Or I'll rip you to shreds, I swear," he threatened as his back was against the wall, unable to defend himself. However, he was saved by the bell when he heard gunshots from a distance. Liz and Patty. Liz stood there with a gun in her hands, grinning as she motioned for Kid to come towards her. He did so.

"Found her?" Liz asked as Kid nodded. He motioned for her to go into weapon form, immediately.

"The very one. Let's go, Liz," Kid ordered as Liz transformed into a gun and away he went, shooting the stick figures to oblivion before he began to chase that banshee down with Beelzebub underneath him. At a fast pace, Kid managed to keep up the pace with her and shot her at the same time. The banshee chuckled as though she could beat him. In response to his gunshots, she threw a couple of crayons at him like daggers.

"Kid! Look out!" Patty cried out as Kid managed to dodge the large, dagger like crayons before rejoining her at the chase. However, at the same time...

* * *

Harlie saw the banshee and hissed in anger. One complication after another and it was the last thing that she needed. She saw Kid chasing after this particular demon and sighed to herself. She was in one of the dark alleyways of Death City and Juniper was ordered to rest for the meanwhile to recover her injuries. As for Harlie, she decided to finish off that banshee before she did any more property damage as well as human lives. So far, Harlie managed to track that banshee down and she found it: being chased by Death the Kid and his twin pistols. With an impatient click in her throat, she knew what she had to do before everything got messy.

"Really, as if one idiot isn't enough," Harlie muttered to herself as she quickly used her ragged cloak to make herself disappear before she re-appeared at the scene, a dagger in her right hand. Kid had to stop halfway, he knew that the woman in front of the banshee knew what was going on and was going to put an end to the whole thing. He couldn't see Harlie stabbing the banshee deeply in the stomach before she flung it to the walls, hard. With a screech, the banshee stood no chance against Harlie as she slit the throat of the banshee, thus giving out a pink soul with black tinges around the edges. A vampire banshee, an unusual one. With a snort, Harlie took the soul with her own bare hands before she disappeared. At once, Kid tried to stop her, but failed due to her speed: too fast.

"Who is that woman? I felt like I have met her before," Kid began, puzzled, as he allowed Liz and Patty to return to their human forms. Liz thought about it too before she informed Kid.

"That woman who came to our house that day. But, why on earth she would save us if she stole your father's diary? It doesn't make sense," Liz began as Kid blinked at her, paying attention to her, "It's her eyes that made me recognize her," she explained as Kid snorted and nodded in agreement.

"You must be right, Liz. For now, I'll report to my honorable father about this and... wait, the scribbles... they're fading?" Kid began in horror as the three of them saw the green crayon scribbles fading away as though rain washed it away for good. Again, he approached the walls where the scribbles used to be and tried to grasp something, but it only gave him an electric shock. Ouch. Liz was shocked to see her meister being thrown back, and for the first time in her life, Kid had shown small signs of _fear_. He was breathing in and out deeply as he saw his right hand, palm up. The electric sparks were there, before it faded into nothing. And it got Kid thinking.

_What is going on? Is it because... no, it can__'t be! I must be thinking irrationally. Just because I objected to an arranged marriage, this happens? No, it must be a separate issue of its own. Right._ Kid reflected as he calmed down, his breathing back to normal. Then, Kid managed to get himself up and faced the two of them, calm as ever. He straightened his jacket and dusted the backside of his pants off before he addressed Liz and Patty.

"Let's go back to the Mansion. The mission is over and the vandalism is being dealt with for now," Kid ordered as the two of them nodded.

"Okay!" the two of them chorused as they headed back to the mansion, just as night slowly transformed into day.

* * *

"How do we enroll?"

Kiri asked Blubber as the two of them were facing the symmetrically perfect building of Shibusen. Blubber began to scratch his head as though he had no idea. He had thought about it for five seconds before he gave up. He turned to Kiri and shrugged his shoulders as though he had no clue about it at all.

"No idea. Anyway, I feel kinda responsible for not getting rid of that zombie. I bet it's coming to the building as we speak," Blubber began as Kiri began to freak out.

"What? What? What? That thing _again_?" Kiri began to freak out as a familiar, adult-like voice interrupted them. The two of them slowly turned around to see who it was. A man with a screw drilled through diagonally his head and rectangular glasses were the first thing the two of them saw. He used his left hand to his screw and slowly turned it three times clockwise before he spoke to them.

"Can I help you?" Crank. Crank. Professor Stein. The stitches and his pale appearance (especially his grey jumper and his white labcoat) has blended well with the chair that he sat on. Blubber felt his body tense: a guy who likes to do creepy stuff. Whatever it might be. That was all Blubber could read thus far. Kiri, in the meanwhile, hid behind Blubber as he addressed Professor Stein.

"Oh, good day, sir... we're new to Death City and would like to enroll in this school. We don't know where to start," Blubber began as Professor Stein nodded as he turned the screw five more times.

"I see. (Crank, crank) And why would you like to enroll in Shibusen in the first place? (Crank, crank)" Professor Stein asked as Blubber sighed and pointed to Kiri as though she was the reason why they were there in the first place.

"It's her. She's afraid of bugs and I want her to try and overcome her fear of bugs by resonating with me, perhaps it might help," Blubber explained as Professor Stein used some of his meister's techniques to look at Kiri and Blubber's souls and arched his eyebrows at him as he made his analysis rather openly.

"Her soul is indeed interesting. She's conflicted with the haunts of the past and yet you managed to read her wavelength... well, not really read it in comparison with yours," Stein began as he took a deep breath, "Yours is strong and brotherly, you would come to her aid when she really needs it. However, I must test you on one thing and it's this," Stein began as he charged at Blubber, quickly initiating a fight. At once, Kiri transformed into a staff and managed to protect Blubber from Stein's attack. Blubber snorted as though he wasn't happy about it. He jumped back and switched to scythe mode. A white glove appeared on his left hand and managed to twirl it about as though he wielded it like a scythe.

"That's not cool, man. If you wanted a fight, you gotta say so," Blubber began as Professor Stein smirked as he nodded. He turned the screw in his head three times before he spoke to the two of them.

"Oh, so you got the hint, eh? Very well... I'll dissect you both!" he cackled loudly before Blubber hollered loudly as he cut the wheels off his chair without warning. Professor Stein fell to the floor, rather clumsily, and that got the Professor upset. He wasn't hurt or anything like that, but the fact that it was his favorite chair that got him going.

"My chair! That's not nice, but I'll dissect you both, still!" he smirked as Professor Stein quickly charged at them. Blubber managed to dodge to one side, but this made Blubber fall down and loose Kiri rather quickly. Kiri transformed back into human form and tried to assist him when she saw Blubber in Professor Stein's hands. He has her mentor as a hostage. Blubber tried his best to struggle his way out, but Professor Stein smirked.

"Strong and brotherly... how interesting..." Professor Stein began as he used his marker as Kiri's anger slowly rose up in spite of her frail appearance, "Should I dissect you here, or here, I wonder? Or it could be just here..." he mocked as Blubber managed to kick him in the shins, hard. At once, Professor Stein was forced to let Blubber go and Kiri transformed back into her weapon form, a staff with a blue aura around it, indicating the anger that she held inside.

"Okay, let's do this, Kiri," Blubber began as Kiri nodded. With a mighty heave, Blubber plunged the staff onto the ground, gem first, and dragged it across the ground, going towards Professor Stein's way. And Professor Stein was temporarily caught off guard, feeling the force of the staff's power. He was sent a few meters away, his body unconscious. With heavy breath, Blubber breathed a sigh of relief as Kiri transformed back to her human form.

"Next time, you... creepy bloke," Blubber called out, "Don't ever pull a stunt like that. We don't like stunts being pulled off like that," he added as the two of them entered inside the compounds. Professor Stein, who was on the floor, smiled to himself. He had lost the duel purposely so he knew what the two of them were like. Now he knows who they were and quite frankly... he was going to give them a test that the two of them will remember.


End file.
